When buying an aircraft, as with any big purchase, you have to be ready to walk away if the deal does not seem right. You also should be able to smile and wave goodbye when the “perfect” airplane slips away, because it is bound to happen, especially if you are not prepared.
My wife and I recently fell hard for a 1990 Beechcraft F33A Bonanza after driving a couple of hours to visit the airplane at the Orange County Airport (KMGJ) in Montgomery, New York. We went almost on a whim. While we had talked frequently about the possibility of aircraft ownership, we had not gone so far as to line up financing. After all, we didn’t consider ourselves serious-enough shoppers yet.
